India’s Gold Obsession drips onto Food : The Gold Dosa

As one of the largest consumers of gold, the fascination that this noble yellow metal holds for India comes as no surprise (according to the World Gold Council, India purchased around 1000 tonnes of gold in 2011 alone) . This appetite for gold that is legendary amongst Indians is now translating into an appetite that is gastronomic too. The city of Bangalore (best known for its techies or the Silicon Valley of India) has a restaurant that is feeding this gold addiction with dosa’s (a pancake of sorts) that are covered in a coating of pure gold.

The Gold Dosa

Each gold dosa comes at a stiff price of 1,011 Rupees (about $19 USD at current rates) which is a lot higher then the usual $1-$2 that one would expect to pay for a plain dosa. The gold which weighs upto 1 milligram is spread over the dosa using a gold foil that is 12 cm x 12 cm in dimensions and is added to the dosa in the final wrap.

The Gold Dosa_02

While eating gold maybe a new thing even in India, a lot of sweetmeats traditionally use silver foil as a wrapping. The Gold Dosa maybe a marketing gimmick, but the Raj Bhog restaurant has had a great response if one of the partners in the restaurant is to be believed. The gold foils are purchased from a certified company from Rajasthan (another province in northern India). Ingesting gold in various forms is nothing new, as the Koreans do with their gold peanuts or even the gold filtered mineral water that promises health benefits. However there is no scientific proof that ingesting gold is helpful in any manner for the human body.

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